Infinite Challenge

Infinite Challenge

Infinite Challenge (‹The template Korean is being considered for merging.› Hangul: 무한도전; hanja: 無限挑戰; RR: Muhan Dojeon; abbreviated as 무도Mudo) is a South Korean television entertainment program, distributed and syndicated by MBC. As of January 2013, it still has the largest market share for its timeslot; roughly between 13 and 17 percent of Korean television viewers watch Infinite Challenge at 6:30 PM every Saturday night.This makes it the top free-to-air television program on Saturday evening, and it’s also the most viewed non-drama program in South Korea every week (excluding special sporting events, since November 2006, with the exception of January 2009, April and May 2010). It has kept the same scheduled time, since first airing in 2005. Since 2009, it lasts for roughly 75 minutes, excluding ten minutes of advertising. Episodes are also frequently rerun on several Korean cable broadcasting channels. Since February 19, 2011 (episode 237), the program has been aired in high-definition. Infinite Challenge has been called “the nation’s variety show” and “Korea’s real first variety” for having been successful for over ten years.

Infinite Challenge is recognized as the first “Real-Variety” show in Korean television history. The program is largely unscripted and follows a similar format of challenge-based reality television programs, familiar to some audiences in the West. The challenges are often silly, absurd, or impossible to achieve, so the program takes on the aspect of a satirical comedy variety show rather than a more standard reality or contest program. In earlier episodes, the show’s six hosts and staff would continuously proclaim that, in order to achieve its comedic purposes, the program was 3-D: Dirty, Dangerous, and Difficult.

Occasional segments

These segments are part of the show but are only featured from time to time.

Recent segments

“Muhan News” – This comic-based newscast presents bits of stories which report events that happened to some or all of the cast members, and also reports on aspects of their life outside of the program. As Yoo Jae-suk, the moderator of this newscast, says at the beginning of the segment every time, the segment is ‘just for fun’ rather than reporting real events. Since Season 4, this segment has become very infrequent and turned to focus more on actual events in the hosts’ lives while still maintaining a balance between facts and humor.

“Muhan Company” – This is the one of the program’s regular comic sketches (another one is “Park Myungsoo is Twelve Years Old”) and being scripted unlike other Infinite Challenge contents. In this segment, the cast played as the employees from a fictional company called “Muhan Company” (Korean: 무한상사) which their characters mainly based on the members’ respective characters. “Muhan Company” originally was the cast’s recreation of old Korean conte by late comedian Kim Hyung-gon called “President, President, Our President” (Korean: 회장님 회장님 우리 회장님), portraying a comic situation of the board of directors of one company, for a special episode following Haha’s return from his military service (S04E199). However, this conte later developed into an episode-long sketch where the concept of board of directors was changed to the staff of one department with Yoo Jae-suk as its head.

“Ha & Soo” – A situation comedy (sitcom, Korean: ‘하&수’) acted out by Jeong Jun-ha and Park Myeong-su. Park Myung-soo’s aggressive, hot-tempered character is highly contrast with Jeong Jun-ha’s timid, simple-minded character and made them constantly quarreling with each other about petty issues. When Jeong and Park make funny, another members call it ‘Ha & Soo’. They are evaluated to be a good duo and even won the “Best Couple” award at the 2011 MBC Entertainment Awards, making them the first male-male couple to have ever won the title

“Hidden Camera” (Korean: 몰래 카메라) – Besides being a key aspect of Jimotmi, the cast and staff of the show also perform hidden-camera segments in which they record the members’ natural behavior to certain contrived situations.

Former segments

“Jimotmi” – Jimotmi which stands for 지켜주지 못해서 미안해 (Jikyeojuji motaeseo mianhae), which means ‘Sorry I could not look out for you.’ In this segment, the members play hidden-camera pranks on each other to see how they react.

“Muhan Theatre” – The cast members of Infinite Challenge unexpectedly present a conte (short-term comic stories). One of the conte, “Muhan Company”, later developed into the show’s featured sketch (see above)

“Please, be…”(series) – This segment was introduced to instill common principles to all of the members (apart from their trademark, ‘selfishness’). ‘”Please, come early”‘ (Korean: 일찍 와주길 바라) and ‘”Please, be friendly”‘ (Korean: 친해 지길 바라, featuring Ha-Ha and Jeong Hyeong-don) were two memorable forms of this segment.

Ah-Ha – A Korean word game in which one member says a word, and the next person must then say that word backwards. For example, ‘Mu-han-do-jeon’ (Name of this program in Korean) would be ‘Jeon-do-han-mu.’ Members who failed or made mistakes would be hit over the head. This segment premiered in the 2nd season (Infinite Challenge – The Master of Quiz) and is still played occasionally.

“One-flash Telepathy” – After hearing a word which has been given from the production booth, each member presents a gesture that he believes best represents that word. The members win a round if all six members perform the same gesture and face a punishment if they do not. The original alleged purpose of this segment was to unite the minds of the members; however, they have yet to succeed. Voice narration for this segment (including ‘Ah-ha’) was done by Na Gyeong-eun, who serves as an announcer for the MBC and eventually married Yoo Jae-suk.

Television Advertisements – Throughout the episodes, the hosts create some satirical Korean television advertisements. For example, Jeong Jun-ha performed a parody of Neutrogena by New Caledoniaand also Hauzen by Samsung Electronics.

Calendar-making Project – During the last three years (2009, 2010, 2011), the members of Infinite Challenge have created a series of unique calendars and donated all profits from these sales to charity. This project has succeed every seasons.